Lightning
by WeCouldBeOneLight
Summary: A family falling out brings Tanner to Bristol, in need of a new home. She roams the streets and eventually stumbles across a place she's familiar with. Seeing a woman in the window, she waves, ultimately shocking the woman, who was unaware anyone aside from her housemates could see her. This woman is Annie, who now has to know just who Tanner is and how she can see her. Mitchell/OC
1. In Which Tanner's New Beginning Begins

"You're a worthless _fuck up_, you know that?!"

"If I'm such a fuck up and so unnecessary, maybe I'll just fucking leave!"

"Please fucking _do!_"

As of that particular moment, I was nose to nose with my big sister Mickey, who'd been utterly outraged to know that, somehow, it was my fault that Ash, one of our little sisters, had been almost killed.

I couldn't tell you all of what happened. Just that it was sort of a usual thing. We had a demon attempting to kill us, and we had to fight it off. In doing so, however, we'd stumbled across several difficulties, one of which being that Ash was injured.

The duty had been placed upon me to take care of her and make sure nothing happened, as, for some stupid reason, Joey was unnavailable at the _one time _we needed him.

Fucking Guardian Angel meetings.

So I had to take care of Ash and make sure nothing happened to her while Alicia, Mickey and Carrie worked on getting what we needed to get rid of the demon.

Demons are annoying little shits in case you don't know.

I literally left the room for thirty seconds. And it was because Ash _told me to_. I'd been getting bored, as there wasn't much to entertain us and we very well couldn't move Ash because of this injury. Every ten minutes we'd call out Joey's name and see if he was available, but he wasn't and it was a _pain in the ass_.

Ash had told me that, if I wanted, I could snap up to my room and grab my sketchbook and some pencils so I could sit down and actually occupy myself whilst the two of us waited. So that's what I did, I snapped up to my room, grabbed my sketchbook and pencils and then snapped back downstairs, just in time to see the very demon we were trying to destroy pick up Ash and cuff out.

So, essentially, it was my fault.

We'd ended up being successful in destroying this demon, and Joey finally arrived to heal Ash, but as soon as we were assured she was alright, Mickey'd rounded on me and started screaming, much to the horror of our little sisters, as well as Carrie and Joey for that matter.

It'd escalated and escalated to the point where you've decided to start reading, dear reader. The end of this fight, where I made the decision that would change my life.

"Fine." I said, taking a step back from my sister. I didn't spare anyone any glances as I looked her dead in the eyes. "Bye."

I snapped out, straight to my room and began to pack my things in a flurry of both magic and nonmagical ways. The magic being me snapping items to my case and bag, and the nonmagic being me throwing things. Whichever worked at that particular moment.

I was just finishing putting the last of my _many _sketchbooks into the medium sized duffel bag that had long ago been deemed my "art bag", alongside all of the art supplies I'd managed to shove in, when there was quiet knock at my door. I almost didn't hear it.

"What?" I growled, turning to the door. It opened and it was revealed to be Alicia standing there, eyes filled with unshed tears.

"If you think you can just cry and that's gonna make everything better, it won't work, Alicia." I ground out before snapping over to my closet and snatching as many articles of clothing as I could (that I _liked,_ as I had several that I hated) out of it, before I snapped back over to my bed where my suitcase was.

When I looked up to see the expression that crossed my little sister's face after the statement, I softened up slightly. Alicia may not have been the youngest, but sometimes it was easier to hurt her feelings than it was to hurt Ash's, regardless of age. "Okay, Leesh, I didn't mean that, I'm sorry." I snapped over in front of her and took her hands in mine. "Look, I'm not gonna stay where I'm not wanted."

"But you _are _wanted!" Alicia finally spoke, her voice quiet and scratchy. "Tanner, don't leave! We'll all talk to Mickey, it'll be okay, just _please don't leave!_"

I shook my head. "Alicia, listen to me. I don't have a choice. You know talking to Mickey won't do any good. She's stubborn and she won't listen. This is the kind of thing that needs _time _to heal."

It was silent as I dropped her hands and moved back to packing my suitcase.

"But you know it won't." Alicia whispered after the silence had spanned over a few minutes.

I looked up at her, just finishing zipping up the suitcase, but I didn't reply.

"You know it won't just _heal_. You're never coming back. Or, at least, you don't plan on it. You wouldn't have taken all of your sketchbooks if you thought this would get better. You know this isn't going to get better and you... You don't... Care..."

I stared at her. "Of course, I care, Leesh! I'm leaving my _family, _here! Look, I don't want you to get into any trouble with Mickey-"

"Screw Mickey, Tanner! I don't want you to leave!"

"Alicia, listen to me right now." She was silent and I took it as my cue to continue. "How long have we been alive? Or rather, how long have _you _known _me?_"

"You're my sister, Tanner." She whispered. "Since birth, of course."

"And how long have _you, _specifically, been alive?"

She was silent for a moment. "I'm 419 years old." She whispered.

"That makes Ash 418, meaning that we have all been _stuck together _for four hundred and eighteen years. Did you really think we were going to _stay together _for all our lives?"

"_Yes!_" She said, finally letting the tears flow. "Yes, I did! I didn't think I was going to _lose you guys_ any time soon and now you're leaving and I- Tanner _please! _I'm begging you!"

"Alicia, I have to." I shook my head, stepping away. "This is half because of Mickey and half because I _know _I need to get out of here. Look, I don't love any of you, not even Mickey, any less. I love _all of you_. But for the sake of everyone's sanity, I need you to pick yourself up and move on. I need you to _not _make contact with me, and listen to what Mickey tells you to do. Take care of Ash and make sure Carrie doesn't get carried away." Alicia let out a broken laugh at the statement. "And make sure you take care of Joey, too. I know he'll take care of you, but sometimes he gets a little crazy." Another broken laugh, before she jumped up, wrapping her arms around me. "I love you, Tanner."

I felt tears prick at the backs of my eyes, but I didn't let them flow, knowing that if I did, my resolve would break and I would end up staying. Or, at least, try to until Mickey forced me out because she was too disgusted to even think about me.

"I love you too, Alicia. Make sure Ash knows I love her and make sure you _take care_."

I reached up, unraveling her arms from around my neck and gently pushing her off. I grabbed my duffel and my suitcase.

"Where will you go?" She asked quietly.

I looked up at her and thought for a moment. Where would I go?

Then it came to me.

"Bristol. That's where I'll go."

"Please be careful." Alicia whispered.

"I will." I nodded once. "Bye, Leesh."

"Goodbye."

With that, I snapped out, Bristol the only thing I had in mind, other than the heartbroken and tear stained expression that'd been across Alicia's face as I snapped out, forever embedded in my mind.

* * *

**Just a little start to a fic I've been thinking about for a while. It'll be one of the five that I plan to work on, without any new additions, until they're all finished, as I've decided to put a bit of a system into the way I go about my fics. **

**I won't make this note long. The prologue was basically just to give a little bit of insight as to who/what Tanner is, and why she has completely left her home and family in Los Angeles, California, USA, for Bristol, all the way over in a completely different continent. **

**Snapping is, by the way, basically the ability to teleport. It's called snapping because, when one snaps, there is a loud snap noise, sort of like someone snapping their fingers, but amplified.**

**I'll be off now. Could I get some reviews, maybe? :)**


	2. In Which Tanner Heads Down Memory Lane

I sighed as I looked around the motel room. It'd have to do until I could scrounge up a job and bring in enough money to move into an actual apartment, or, rather, _flat, _as they called it where I was then.

I'd basically moved across the world. From Los Angeles in the United States, to Bristol, in the UK.

I knew I had to get money out soon as, knowing Mickey, she'd probably cut me off from our main account that we all shared, which really just held all of our inheritance as we didn't work (at least, not all the time - sometimes we did, just depending on how we felt on the idea at the time).

So that's what I decided to do. I checked up on the location of the nearest bank and snapped out, not really wanting to get lost as I aimlessly wandered the streets of Bristol, never finding the bank that was meant to be just down the road.

Time ticked by as the people at the bank droned on, deciding they were going to explain British currency to me, as apparently they hadn't heard me when I told them I knew how it all worked and had, at one point, lived in Bristol and was simply moving back, which _was _the truth.

Finally, I'd managed to open a completely separate account from our family one, and transfer a good amount of money into it, however I'd wasted just about all of my morning in doing so.

Looked like I wouldn't be able to take a mid-morning walk in order to rediscover Bristol, eventually get lost and then snap back to the motel, having given up on trying to find it on foot.

Instead, I would take a mid-afternoon walk so I could rediscover Bristol, eventually get lost and then snap back to the motel, having given up on trying to find it on foot.

As soon as I left the bank, I hurried to a place where nobody would see or hear, as I very well couldn't have anyone catching me disappearing into thin air, and I was back in my motel room. Grabbing my iPod, earbuds, a pencil and one of my new sketchbooks, as I always had a supply of empty ones to go with my others that were stuffed and overflowing with drawings, before I headed out once more.

I trekked around for quite a while, and before I knew it, I'd been walking for two and a half hours - it was 4:30. I hadn't settled down to drawn anything, as I was still soaking in Bristol. Although the last time I'd _lived _for a long period of time there was the early, and I mean early as in the first decade of, 1900's, and it had only been for about five or six years, before we picked up shop and moved back to America.

The last time I'd lived Bristol for a _short _period of time, however, was actually in 2000. My boyfriend, at the time (one of the few Warlocks I've dated), had originally been _from _Bristol, and had asked me to come and visit his family and maybe I could stay there with him for a while, as he'd stayed with me in Alabama (where my sisters and I had lived at the time), for quite a while.

I ended up accepting and we rented out a flat, quickly making friends with the neighbors and settling into an enjoyable life. I frequently visited my sisters, Carrie and Joey in Alabama, helping them out when necessary and keeping to what was once Ash and I's Saturday-ly ritual of watching Freaks and Geeks and rocking out to Britney Spears.

I hadn't noticed that I was suddenly on that same street that I'd lived on nine years previous, until I almost walked into a car parked on the side of the road, and then recognized where exactly I was.

I let out a loud squeak and looked up, staring as I realized I was stood right next to our old apartment. "That's crazy." I mumbled with a small smile, remembering all the memories Rory and I had shared - yes, his name was Rory, don't judge. I think it's quite the endearing name.

Rory and I had, basically, broken up on the New Years that started 2001. And by broken up, I mean he was violently murdered in an attempt to save his elderly mother from a Sorceress who wanted revenge from an occurrence many years previous. I'd quickly moved back in with my sisters after the funeral. They seemed to think that the topic of Rory was a sensitive one, as he was the first _serious _love I'd had in half a century, and in the eight years that had passed since his death, his name hadn't exactly been a household conversation regular. However, that didn't mean that if you looked at the wall, and I literally mean _wall _covered in photos taken, paintings painted and drawings drawn (all by me, exempt a small few) over the many years of our lives that was settled in the upstairs hallway of our current home in Los Angeles, you wouldn't find an assortment of memories from Rory and I's time together.

This also did not mean I was in Bristol to dwell on the past. No, I was in Bristol to start anew. That was the plan - starting anew. Rory had given me the chance in Bristol just nine years previous to see what life would be like without my sisters, Carrie and Joey. I'd had a glimpse. And, honestly? My life, minus the day to day drama that came with being a Parson Witch, was _beautiful_.

I loved it. I'd fallen in love with Bristol, therefore decided that I would stay in Bristol upon leaving my family, hence why I'd snapped there after my conversation with Alicia.

Back to the present, or, rather, what was the present _then._

So, the _story_, I suppose.

I'd stumbled upon the street where Rory and I had lived. I smiled, seeing the apartment squeezed between two others just across the street from where I stood. I continued walking, looking around and remembering who had lived where and what my relationship statuses with each of those people (platonic relationships, obviously - I would never cheat on a man) were. I ran my hand a long the wall of one of the more familiar apartments on that street and smiled to myself.

Valerie and Harold had lived there. They were a cute couple, in their late twenties. Before I'd moved back to Alabama, they'd been starting the process of adopting a daughter, as Valerie was unable to have children. Whenever I couldn't go to Mickey or Carrie, I'd gone to Valerie. She'd been like a third big sister (even though, if you look at the three, Mickey, Carrie and Valerie, Mickey's the only one I'm even related to).

I smiled as I came upon the door of the apartment. Hopefully nobody'd see me creepily smiling at it as I remembered all the times I'd come over and visit Valerie whilst Harold and Rory were out drinking, or Rory was working with his brothers and Harold was out at the office.

We'd sit down, have some tea, coffee, ice cream, whatever the Hell we wanted, really, and we'd just talk. We'd talk about everything from my sisters, to her brothers, to Rory, to Harold, to books we've read, to my paintings to her students (she was a teacher), to, just, well... _Everything_. We talked about everything under the sun and more. I'd never actually had someone that I could sit down and just _talk to_. Not about demons, or about how annoying it is when Joey can't do his own damn laundry, after _four hundred fucking years_. Instead, we'd talk about politics, art and Les Misérables, aka the perfect combination of politics and art.

With a sigh, I decided I should continue walking. Maybe I'd find a bench, sit down and draw Valerie. Or I could snap back to the motel room and try looking her up. Maybe she and Harold and their adopted daughter, Trinity, were still somewhere in the vacinity. Ha, I made a rhyme.

I brought my hand down from the wall, letting it fall back to my side. I looked up as I went to keep moving, only to realize that I was being watched. There, in the window of Valerie and Harold's old apartment, was a woman. A very _pretty _woman at that. I felt a bit self conscious as I smiled and waved to her, before I went to continue walking down the street.

-Third Person POV-

Annie frowned curiously as she watched the woman from the window. She'd stopped along their place and was currently staring at the door with a fond expression.

"What're you doing, Annie?" George asked from the kitchen. Annie didn't reply as she examined her. She wasn't overly tall, however she wasn't short either. She had long, flowing brown hair and carried a sketchbook at her side, a pencil tucked behind her ear and her iPod sticking out of her pocket as she listened to whatever was currently playing.

Suddenly, the girl's hand fell to her side and she looked up, catching Annie's eye. To the ghost's surprise, the girl smiled and waved, before she pulled the pencil from behind her ear and began absently tapping out a beat on her sketchbook, continuing to make her way down the street. Annie gasped when she saw a key fall out of the girl's pocket as she removed her iPod, probably to change the song.

She hadn't noticed that she'd dropped her key and kept walking. Annie knew she damn well couldn't let her just leave it there.

Plus, she was a bit shocked by the fact that, well...

_She could see her. _Someone could _see her. _Someone who wasn't a werewolf, like George, or a vampire, like Mitchell.

That _had _to mean something.

The ghost did the first thing to mind and she rushed over to the door, flinging it open and ignoring George and Mitchell calling after her and wanting to know what's wrong. She hurried over to the fallen key, before she called out to the girl who was about to turn the corner.

"Miss! Miss, you dropped your key!"

The girl stopped and turned around, pulling out one of her earbuds. "Are you talking to me?"

Annie smiled and nodded. "Uh, yes. This is yours?" The girl blinked and stared for a moment, before hurrying over, and gratefully taking the key from Annie, shoving it back in her pocket. "Thank you! If I lost that I wouldn't be able to get in my room." She laughed, her American accent differing from the assorted accents the ghost was used to hearing in Bristol. Annie's smile grew as she realized that she really _was _talking to this girl.

_This was happening. _And it was _exciting_. Someone could see and talk to her, aside from George and Mitchell. Don't get her wrong, she loved the two to death and was thrilled to have them to talk to and be around, but that doesn't mean that she didn't wish others could see and talk to her as well. Others who she could talk to about things that were, well...

_Girly_.

Sure, she may've been a ghost and couldn't experience everything that _living _people could, but that didn't mean she couldn't talk about it.

"I'm Annie." She introduced herself. "I noticed you stopped outside and I was wondering, well, uh, why?"

The girl smiled. "I used to know some people who lived here a while back. Sorry if I looked creepy." She grimaced, before replacing it with the previous smile. "And I'm Tanner. It's a pleasure, Annie."

"You used to know some people who lived here?" Annie repeated and Tanner nodded, still smiling. "Yeah, they were some pretty good friends of mine for a while. I used to live just over there, actually." She pointed across the street and Annie nodded. "Tanner, would you like to come inside?" She offered and Tanner blinked at how straightforward she was. "It's just, you know, it's a bit chilly out and, well, it seems a bit awkward, you know, just standing out here on the sidewalk..." _And, you know, most people can't see me 'cause I'm a ghost and I don't want you to look like you're crazy._

Tanner nodded, her smile never leaving. "I'd love to."

Annie's own smile turned into an ear-splitting grin. "Perfect! Come on, then!" And she led the woman inside.

Neither of them could _ever _have even _guessed _what would transpire simply from Tanner's taking a trip down memory lane.

* * *

**AHHHH IT'S REALLY SHORT I'M SORRY!**

**How are you all? Thank you for the lovely reviews! I got THREE! O.O**

**Such numbers.  
Much appreciation.  
Wow.**

**Doge, anyone? Hahaha :P**

**Well, I don't actually have much to say other than _I DON'T OWN BEING HUMAN,_ and _I LOVE YOU ALL!_**

**Again, sorry it's so short. It's one of those chapters to help ease into everything. I think I'm gonna work with the season one storyline and then see where I go from there :3**

**Well, I'll be off, because I have to work on stuff for my school's cabaret. Talk to you all later(:**

**Love, Becky**

**PS: More reviews, maybe? ^.^**


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